Conklin, 18 and a graduate of Oak Mountain High School in Shelby County, learned about the modeling opportunity from Cover Girl Model Management in New York. She interviewed with the magazine in March. They selected her and she returned to New York in late May to pose for her photos that appear on pages 36, 38, 40 and 42. Three other teenagers are also featured in the layout. (See her layout here.)

"Normally, for high fashion stuff, you had to be 5'11. But, for Seventeen magazine, they liked you as you are," she said. "They didn't tell me I had to be stick skinny, which I'm not."

Conklin said she's modeled in Atlanta, and won Miss Alabama for International Junior Miss in 2009 and Miss Alabama Junior teen in 2008 for National American Miss. However, this is her first major magazine photo shoot.

She said she's now hoping to appear in Teen Vogue magazine. But first, there is school, where she is studying journalism.

"I still can't believe it," she said of her appearance in Seventeen. "But, hopefully, this will open new doors for me."

For the magazine, she modeled jackets, boots and a scarf. It's still a little too hot for those fashions right now, but she promises to be fashionable in "back-to-school" attire when she attends her first Alabama football game as a freshman on Saturday when Alabama faces Kent State University in Tuscaloosa.